Services

3D - Printing Services

With additive manufacturing entering the consumer market, many are interested in purchasing or seeing what it is all about.

The whole process, in a nutshell:

​1) Start out with a CAD model which captures your design intent. You can look at various websites which have these files for free (thingiverse, grabcad).

2) Export out a stereo-lithography (*.stl) file.

3) Use a slicing program to take layers of the solid and turn it machine code understandable by the printer, which dictates the nozzle tool path (*.gcode). Not all slicing programs are created equal; this is one of the most important steps. The file called gcode is just a set of instructions telling the printer what to do for each sliced layer (move left, right, up, down, extrude, etc...).

4) Upload the *.gcode to the 3D printer, and watch your part grow! Not all printers are created equal; there are many things that can affect the precision print of your part.